Public Interest Practice
If you are like many students, you may come to law school with a desire to represent people and communities which have been under-served in the legal system. Providing legal assistance to low income and other under-represented people and communities is generally referred to as “public interest practice.” Whether you chose a career as a public interest lawyer or serve the public interest through pro bono representation within an otherwise for-profit practice, there are certain courses that will help prepare you. Public interest practice requires you to understand the basic workings of courts, governmental agencies, and corporations. Public interest practice may range from litigation to alternative dispute resolution to representation of your client in a legal transaction (such as assisting a public interest group acquire land or a building). The courses listed below will provide you with the basic knowledge and skills for public interest practice.
As a public interest lawyer, you might specialize in a particular area of the law such as criminal defense, family law, poverty law, health law, consumer protection or employment law. Finally, if you are interested in public interest and the efforts to provide equal access to the justice system for all people, you should strongly consider a course which provides a manner for critiquing the current American legal system such as Jurisprudence, Feminist Legal Theory and Comparative Law.
General Courses
- Administrative Law
- Advanced Appellate Advocacy
- Arbitration: Law, Policy and Practice
- Bankruptcy
- Constitutional Law
- Dispute Resolution
- Employment Discrimination
- Evidence
- Federal Courts
- Immigration Law and Policy
- Interviewing and Counseling
- Labor Law I and II
- Poverty Law
- Public Interest Lawyering
- Secured Transactions
- Trial Advocacy
- Intensive Trial Advocacy
- Trial Practice Competition
- Advanced Trial Advocacy (Civil and Criminal)
Practical Writing Courses
- Civil Pretrial Practice
- Administrative Practice
Clinics and Externships
- Civil Justice Clinic
- Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services (CARES)
- Committee of 70 Externship
- Consumer Bankruptcy Externship
- Domestic Violence Externship
- Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic
- Federal Tax Clinic
- Health Law Project Externship
- Immigration Law Project Externship
- Innocence Project Externship
- Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Externship
- Support Center for Child Advocates Externship
- United States Environmental Protection Agency Externship
